To reach Ukraine accord: high diplomacy, 'dirty games' and pig's fat

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko (3rd R), Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel (2nd L), France's President Francois Hollande (L), Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko (2nd R) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin walk upstairs during peace talks in Minsk, February 11, 2015. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko

MINSK (Reuters) - The talks lasted more than 17 hours, during which a couple of "buckets" of coffee were drunk, and took place in what Ukraine's foreign minister, with some understatement, described as a "difficult psychological atmosphere".

The 'family photograph' of participants at the start of the four-power marathon in the Belarussian capital Minsk told much of the story in advance: Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko stood at one end of the line-up - with the leaders of Germany and France keeping him well apart from Russia's Vladimir Putin.